Long ago between fifty and sixty years when there were not many trains all the people had to go to Cork by car with their firkins of butter and bring home all their provisions. This day as a man by the name of James Quirke of Mountcollins Abbeyfeale was passing a castle near Mallow he stood looking at the ruins and feeding his horse when a little man stuck his head out of the ivy that surrounded the castle and spoke to him. He said my dear man you will live an old age and see many strange things. You will see headless coaches running the road instead of your common car and there will be war in Ireland and a Spaniard shall rule it.